Monsanto Eyes Bump of 50 Bushels Per Acre

Farmers are accustomed to making incremental yield gains from year to year. Officials at Monsanto Company say its newest acquisition, The Climate Corporation, could use "data science" to drive an eventual 30 bu. to 50 bu. yield boost in many customer fields as farmers begin to capture and use multiple layers of information to make better-informed decisions.

"Farmers around the world already gather a tremendous amount of information," says Kerry Preete, Monsanto executive vice president of global strategy. "They’re gathering more data all the time. They’re making about 40 decisions or so on every field
every year, so data management is vital to farm function."

Preete says that aggregating small improvements in each of those 40 decisions is how Monsanto expects to deliver those big yield gains.

The Climate Corporation brings three major competencies to the table: hyper-local weather moni­tor­ing, weather simulation and unique agronomic modeling, says CEO David Friedberg. This expertise will be used to opti-mize Monsanto’s FieldScripts product, which uses its wealth of data to deliver hybrid matches and variable-rate planting prescriptions to customers.

Ted Crosbie, Monsanto’s Integrated Farming Systems lead, says FieldScripts was developed assuming the field would receive average rainfall and heat accumulation. However, current climate trends indicate more volatile weather is the new norm.

"Clearly, that’s not the way to optimize FieldScripts, but that’s the best we could do," Crosbie explains. "That’s one of the reasons we’re so excited to partner with Climate Corp."

For 2015. Monsanto hopes to create weather-adjusted FieldScripts, Crosbie says. Customers will use regular scripts in 2014, but they can expect something more com­pre­­hensive in 2015. The pricing for the service will remain the same in 2014 and be based on the expected value it will bring to farmers in 2015 and beyond.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of Monsanto’s 2014 fiscal year. Following the acquisition, The Climate Corporation will operate its business to retain its distinct brand identity and customer experience. The company’s headquarters will remain in Silicon Valley, and all of its employees will be offered continued employment.

Resistant weeds continue to proliferate—and researchers are finding cases of multiple
herbicide resistance within individual weed plants and populations in a field. This issue of Farm Journal kicks off the Weed Warriors series, which will run through early spring.